The wife of George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign adviser whose drunken boasts triggered the Russia investigation, said the couple will divorce following "months of abuse" and disrespectful comments he made on a podcast.
"Officially divorcing [Papadopoulos] after the months of abuses and ultimately the huge disrespect he showed this morning in his podcast. I am tired of him and playing his wife," Simona Mangiante wrote Monday on Twitter before deleting her tweets. "He is a monster."
Mangiante, whose wedding to Papadopoulos was live-streamed online just two years earlier, called her husband an "opportunist" who "used me for his public benefit."
"You know what [George]? as much as I though [sic] you were an honest man deserving respect, I realize you are as [sic] grifter with no integrity, and I don't like you," she wrote.
"It's true," Mangiante later confirmed to the outlet Law & Crime.
Mangiante subsequently deleted her tweets and briefly deactivated her account.
She switched over to Instagram to report that she was "taking a pause off Twitter until I will release a proper interview with all details."
Papadopoulos also deleted a tweet after commenting on the podcast episode that led to the fallout.
"Hell of an episode today, guys," he wrote before taking it down. He later wrote, "Glad you are enjoying it!" when a user commented on his show.
Papadopoulos rose to infamy after he became a key figure in former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. He triggered the FBI's probe of the Trump campaign after telling an Australian diplomat that Russia had thousands of emails that would embarrass Hillary Clinton. He was dismissed by Trump as just a "coffee boy" on the campaign but was featured heavily in Mueller's report. He was later sentenced to 14 days in prison after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI.
The spat comes days after Papadopoulos lost his longshot bid for the House seat vacated by former Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif. He mocked Hill after embarrassing photos and details about her personal life were leaked online and filed to run after she stepped down.
Papadopoulos recently told Los Angeles Magazine that he was not running to "be a joke."
"I've had a lot of people say that California's a lost cause, and we can't win this at all. This was a district that was held by the Republicans for 26 years, OK?" he said. "If I just wanted to go on notoriety, I'd run against Adam Schiff in Hollywood. I guarantee you I'd be in the news every day. I would've raised millions of dollars, and I would've lost in a landslide. That's not what I'm running for. I'm not running to be a joke. I'm actually running to win."
"I will get to DC on day one, work with allies to not only prioritize the needs of the district, but begin the effort to take back the great state of California!" he tweeted. "What happens in the district affects the state and our great country. Let's do this!"
Papadopoulos finished in eighth place in the 25th District jungle primary last Tuesday, gaining just 1,297 votes.
"Given that's he's a convicted felon," quipped CNN legal analyst Elie Honig, "he likely couldn't even vote for himself."
Shares